Joined
by Medie
Summary: Everything has changed...and Daniel has some thinking to do.


Title: Joined  
Author: Medie  
Email: medisonthezone.net  
Fandom: Stargate SG-1  
Rating: PG  
Pairing: Sam/Daniel, Jolinar/Lantesh  
Spoilers/References: In The Line Of Duty, Divide and Conquer  
Set During: Season Four  
Author's Note: The italicized comments denote symbiote speaking. This fic was part of a birthday surprise for azarsuerte who brought up this idea awhile ago.  
Summary: Everything has changed...and Daniel has some thinking to do.  
  
"Joined"  
by M.  
--------  
  
The first night after it happened, he woke up, drenched in sweat, mind full of images from his nightmares to find a blonde head resting against his side and a hand curled tightly around his.  
  
Jolinar...  
  
The name swam up from the depths of his mind where Lantesh now resided and Daniel immediately responded, Sam...  
  
He felt amusement from the symbiote. Sam, Jolinar...it amounted to the same difference. Just as in their eyes, it was Daniel, Lantesh...all the same to them. It was confusing but it wasn't and he wasn't sure if he should be more confused than what he was. There was so much in his mind that it was hard to process, some things that were so very terrible...and then there were the things that weren't.  
  
Like Sam...and Jolinar.  
  
Lying there, he remembered the conversations Martouf and Lantesh had once had with the newly blended Jolinar and Sam as they tried to explain the sudden rush of emotions. What the host feels, the symbiote feels, what the symbiote feels, the host feels. Circular emotion. Daniel was grateful for the memory...it helped explain his newly discovered feelings. He'd always been attracted to Sam, it was foolhardy to deny it, and had known it would take only a little to push those sparks into a full blown flame. Had consciously guarded against it happening. He'd been married, loved his wife, it was foolish to say he couldn't be tempted. He had been. But then, Jolinar had happened and the Tok'ra had come into their lives, bring Martouf and Lantesh with them.  
  
But things had changed...Sha're was gone. Martouf was gone. Lantesh was within him now and the symbiote's deep feelings for Jolinar and Sam had been all it took to push Daniel's own feelings into full-fledged love. And desire.  
  
Memories surged to the forefront and his body reacted. Irked, Daniel closed his eyes and tried to stem the reaction, much to Lantesh's amusement. They were in love with the women beside them, his symbiote reasoned, the reaction was perfectly normal. Daniel's response was to point out they were also in the infirmary and Janet had a habit of checking her patients regularly and that if Lantesh cared to explain things to the doctor then...  
  
Lantesh, having seen Daniel's memories of the doctor, and heard the stories from Sam and Jolinar, was no fool.  
  
Tok'ra symbiotes it seemed, were better than cold showers.  
  
With that under control, he could relax. Could think. Tonight he was to rest, adjust to the change. Tomorrow the planning would start. Everything had changed and needed to be dealt with. How Lantesh's presence within Daniel would affect his life was chief among those. He'd already made it quite clear to Lantesh, he wouldn't leave the SGC. Lantesh had no problems with that. Though, he'd imagined the Tok'ra High Council would.  
  
His host didn't much care. He wasn't leaving Earth, the SGC, or Sam and Jolinar. Lantesh had similar feelings on the subject. They would be of as much use, in his thinking, to the Tok'ra's cause aiding the Tau'ri as they would be by remaining within the Tok'ra. Lantesh had always had issue with the Tok'ra's cautious approach. Though he thought the Tau'ri were capable of making foolish choices...he also knew they achieved better results. But, of course, he had to admit, their lovers were a big part of the reasoning to stay. Sam and Jolinar had always divided their time between SG1 and the Tok'ra with the lion's share of that time falling onto SG1's side of the scale.  
  
Daniel expected the same would come of his joining with Lantesh. The Tok'ra wouldn't like it but they also didn't have a choice. Unlike Jacob, they still had duties in the SGC, and they weren't leaving them.  
  
Earth was Sam and Jolinar's home base. It was Daniel's home base. Lantesh would make it his as well.  
  
There was simply no other option. But it seemed options were in short supply lately.  
  
The pillow beneath his head was too hard but he ignored the slight discomfort. Compared to the rest of his body, that was easy. Getting thrown across the room by a homicidal Tok'ra tended to cause a few bruises, not to mention some lacerations and a broken rib or two. Anise had done serious damage on her path to kill Perseus and the President. Serious damage indeed. She'd left Daniel severely wounded, Martouf dying and Lantesh unable to save him. The weakened symbiote had been forced to leave his dying host and seek out a new one. The semi-conscious Daniel had seen little option but offer...  
  
Little option but, he had to admit, he wasn't complaining about the outcome. He felt Lantesh's grief over the loss of Martouf, felt it as keenly as Lantesh did, knew Jolinar and Sam were grieving the same. It would take time to adjust to the change. He knew how it had taken time for Martouf and Lantesh to adjust to Sam taking Rosha's place...they'd lost just as much as they had gained and it was not something easily dealt with. Lantesh was adjusting, he was adjusting, and he knew Sam and Jolinar were doing the same. For Sam, it would be easier and yet it would be harder. She was comfortable with him. His presence would be a welcomed calm. They had been friends for years and, in some ways, that was what made it harder. Circumstances had kept them from being anything more. Now they'd been thrust into the something more with absolutely no warning and a ton of history suddenly behind them. The strength of the relationship, of the passionate love, between Lantesh and Jolinar was overwhelming. The first feelings of it had hit him with all the force of a tidal wave and seeing them, seeing Sam sitting beside them, sensing Jolinar's presence within her...they hit him all over again. His own emotions joined the fray and the intensity of it nearly took his breath away. It was the same for Sam, he knew, Jolinar's emotions and her emotions intermingling and sweeping through her. Grief, love, joy, desire...all of it a heady mixture that would make her lightheaded. It was impossible to ignore.  
  
"Daniel?"  
  
Sam's whispered voice drew him out of his thoughts and he looked over to see her worried eyes on him. "Hey..." He smiled, his hand slipping free of hers, reaching out to lightly trace her face and slide down to cup her chin gently.  
  
She smiled, her own hand coming up to lightly rest on his, grasping his wrist. "How're you feeling?"  
  
"Tired." He admitted with a nod. "Lantesh too."  
  
"That'll pass." She smiled, her eyes damp with tears. She'd been crying for a while, he could see the evidence of it on her face. "You just need rest."  
  
"You do too." He moved his hand, brushing away one of the escapees that was working it's way down her cheek. "You're exhausted."  
  
"I'm fine." Sam assured automatically, the words coming to her lips as quickly as they always had. Daniel had a feeling she'd say it if she were missing all her limbs with a massive head wound. He suddenly pictured her looking up at him in such a state and saying, 'me? I'm fine.'  
  
He snorted at the image, earning a confused look from her, then smiled quickly. "Sorry, Lantesh."  
  
Liar...  
  
Mentally telling the Tok'ra to mind his own business in no uncertain terms, Daniel smiled again. "You never mentioned the part about them being chatterboxes."  
  
"Well...you get used to it." Sam hedged with a sheepish look. "And they don't talk all the time...though, Jolinar insists Lantesh is the motor mouth."  
  
She should be the one to talk, she should...she never stops.  
  
Daniel groaned. "Sam...I think we're hosting the Tok'ra equivalent of an old married couple."  
  
She smiled, eyes lighting up, dazzling him. "You won't hear me argue."  
  
"No thanks, Lantesh arguing in my head is more than enough." He rubbed his forehead. They had to talk about it sooner or later. The feelings between them were as tangible and as solid as the bed beneath him and neither one of them was missing that fact. "Sam..."  
  
Her smile softened and she shook her head, her hands trapping his between them and holding it gently. "Don't worry about it. We'll deal with everything later. You just focus on resting and giving Lantesh a chance to finish healing you. We'll have plenty of time to talk about things later."  
  
The look on her face said nothing really needed to be talked about. They both knew what would happen from there on out. It was decided whether they'd had any input or not. Some things just were. Daniel didn't complain about that fact. Instead, he smiled and murmured, "So...your place or mine?"  
  
Sam's smile turned megawatt as she whispered, "Ours."  
  
Daniel's face echoed the expression hers as he echoed, "Ours." He repeated the word, quietly, to himself with a nod. He liked that word. With all of the chaos of the previous 24 hours...that word was the key to making things make sense. His own personal rosetta stone. Yeah, he liked that word a lot.  
  
Standing, Sam leaned over to brush a kiss across his forehead. "Get some sleep. You need it."  
  
"Be here when I wake up?"  
  
He wasn't sure where the question came from, himself or Lantesh, but he knew they both wanted an answer. The look in Sam's eyes as she stared down at him was answer enough but the words she softly murmured were ones he suspected they needed to hear, ones she and Jolinar needed to say.  
  
"Would I be anywhere else?"  
  
Daniel adjusted his head on the pillow, Sam's hands moving to help him, and he smiled again, reaching out to catch one of them and hold it against his chest. She ceased her ministrations and stood silently by his side. She wouldn't leave. There was nowhere else she wanted to be. It had always been this way for Jolinar and Lantesh and, they knew, it would be that way for Daniel and Sam.  
  
Finis 


End file.
